U-Boat

German submarines, or unterseebooten, were the scourge of the Atlantic for much of World War I, preying on Allied merchant shipping in an attempt to starve the British Isles into submission, a strategy that was nearly successful. German prosecution of unrestricted submarine warfare pushed the United States closer to entering the war prior to 1917.

Led by the impetuous General Nathaniel Lyon, Union forces pursued retreating Confederates across southwestern Missouri in the summer of 1861. At Wilson’s Creek, Lyon caught up with the enemy on aptly named Bloody Hill.